Turkish PM calls for more hydroelectric power plants

Turkey should build more dams and hydroelectric plants to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign energy, PM Erdoğan said Wednesday in Rize.

Turkey should build more dams and hydroelectric plants to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign energy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday in the Black Sea province of Rize.

Natural-gas power plants, widely used in Turkey at the present, are costly, meaning they lower Turkey's competitive power in industry because the gas needs to be imported, Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey should seek to become a self-sufficient country in energy through the construction of new dams and hydroelectric plants.

Erdoğan, who made the comments during the opening of the Cevizlik hydroelectric power plant in Rize’s İkizdere district, said he believed the $120 million investment would bring a new dynamism to the area’s economy.

Erdoğan said Turkey's energy demand had peaked with the rise of both manufacturing and consumption in the country.

Alluding to dam projects, the prime minister said his government paid utmost attention to not harming nature and the environment while producing energy.